FORMER UK BBC Dragons’ Den star and international entrepreneur James Caan has made his first investment in the American recruitment market with the newly announced partnership with Arizona-based sales recruitment company, RevsUp.
The partnership, between James’ private equity venture, Recruitment Entrepreneur USA, and RevsUp’s CEO, Mark DeChant, signifies a milestone as they aim to establish over 25 partnerships in the next five years.
Mark DeChant, the author of The $500K Sales Recruiter, established RevsUp in 2015 after 14 years as a successful enterprise sales leader and contributor at early-stage companies in software and services.
He states, “I was fortunate to generate more than $2 million in billings in my first 48 months as a one-person staffing agency —including $523K in Year One. Leaning on my experience as a sales VP, I developed comprehensive strategies, tactics, tools, and methodologies that are unique to the staffing industry and 100% replicable. I started training new RevsUp employees on The $500K Sales Recruiter methodology, which helped me scale the business to where it is today.”
“Mark and his team provide top-notch service to every client, no matter how big or small, and we are incredibly excited to help both Mark and the RevsUp team achieve their full potential,” Caan states. “This is a key milestone for Recruitment Entrepreneur USA, and I look forward to working closely with Mark and the team to support the vision and ambition of RevsUp as it scales up.”
Doug Bugie, Recruitment Entrepreneur’s U.S. Country Director, states: “Mark DeChant is the exemplar of the kind of partnership and leaders we seek — Mark puts his values into action. Values and culture can be scaled and drive significant commercial success; combining them creates a lasting legacy. We’ve seen these qualities in Mark from the beginning. The RE team looks forward to collaborating with Mark and the team at RevsUp to build on what is already a game-changing business.”
Mark’s approach to recruiting is reflected in the business’s ethos and structure, as every consultant of RevsUp brings years of experience in sales and operations. The company is operated by former President’s Club winners who have been formally trained on top-tier methodologies, such as Challenger Sale, MEDDIC, and Sandler.
RevsUp’s customers are primarily pre-IPO, business-to-business technology firms. “I’ve always believed that the unemployment rate for top salespeople is minus 5% at all times,” says DeChant. “In other words, there are far more open roles than there are true difference-making salespeople available. We conduct discreet searches on behalf of top performers who are quietly looking.”
Mark joins the Recruitment Entrepreneur global network, giving RevsUp access to skills and resources to expand the business and in turn support clients and candidates across the U.S. and internationally.
“I was quite satisfied once RevsUp grew to eight people, and I wasn’t actively looking for a business partner,” DeChant continued. “But as I learned more about James Caan and Recruitment Entrepreneur, I realized what this partnership could deliver for our employees, clients, and candidates.”
“RE provides us with access to executive resources and a support system that would have taken me years to assemble on my own. We basically have direct access to 50 of the most tenured, successful, and creative recruitment professionals in the world. This is going to supercharge the RevsUp model, which has been proven for more than seven years.”
RevsUp is aiming to become the leading software sales recruiter in the U.S. market and to grow to a headcount of 40+ by 2025.
Caan joins the board alongside Doug Bugie, who has brought more than 700 founders into the recruitment industry in more than 40 countries; Tom Lovell, who has previously grown a staffing business to 2,000 employees and $1 billion in revenue; and Patrick Schwind, a serial entrepreneur who has led teams as large as 2,000 as a senior leader in sales and operations.
About RevsUp
RevsUp is a growing recruitment business that connects high-performance salespeople with high-potential software firms. The company’s hiring process is directly informed by decades of field experience and the business has already achieved a 90% success rate in an industry where the average success rate is less than 50%.
About Recruitment Entrepreneur
Recruitment Entrepreneur is a leading private equity investor in recruitment businesses globally. Our mission is to help founders globally, launch, scale, and eventually exit their recruitment businesses, generating a wealth creation event. We invest in all sectors within the recruitment industry, which provides a diverse portfolio of businesses, each one a specialist in its niche.
We have fostered a community of businesses that benefit from the expertise of our dedicated team who provide funding, financial expertise, operational strategy, back-office support, legal advice, marketing, and talent attraction solutions, enabling our partner businesses to flourish, grow, scale and exit. Our success lies in our ability to provide not just knowledge, but also know-how.
Investing time, money, and experience in people with the potential to become great leaders, we partner with and empower budding entrepreneurs to build world-class recruitment businesses, capable of achieving a high equity value on exit.
To register interest in Recruitment Entrepreneur investment to launch or grow your business, click here.
For more information, contact:
Doug Bugie, Country Director
Recruitment Entrepreneur USA